Migrating from Drift (now Salesloft) to Crisp? You're in the right place.

For many teams, Drift has been the tool used to engage website visitors, qualify leads, and turn conversations into pipeline.

That is why switching away from it can feel like more than just changing chat software.

If you're considering Crisp as an alternative, the real question is not whether you will still be able to engage and qualify visitors. It is whether you can do it in a simpler system that also connects conversations, campaigns, customer data, and AI in one place.

This guide is here to make that transition easier. It will show you how Crisp approaches conversations differently, how your current Drift habits translate, and how to migrate step by step without losing momentum.

Moving from buyer engagement to a unified conversation platform

Drift is designed first and foremost to help revenue teams engage website visitors, qualify leads, and create pipeline through conversation.

Crisp can support the same types of interactions, but it organizes them inside a broader system built around the conversation itself.

Instead of separating chat, qualification, campaigns, and customer context across different layers, Crisp brings them together into one platform.

A conversation-first model

In Crisp, conversations are the central layer.

This means the same environment can be used to:

• engage new visitors
• qualify leads
• continue sales conversations
• and support existing customers

Rather than treating these as separate workflows, Crisp lets your team manage them through one shared conversation system.

One system for chat, data, and follow-up

Crisp does not stop at the chat widget.

Conversations are connected to your contacts, your campaigns, your knowledge base, and your inbox workflow.

This makes it easier to move from a website conversation to a follow-up action, a campaign, or a support exchange without leaving the same platform.

AI is part of the same flow

Crisp also includes Hugo, an AI agent that can handle incoming conversations before they reach your team.

This means visitor engagement, qualification, routing, and escalation can all happen inside the same conversation flow, instead of being managed as separate layers.

How Drift maps to Crisp

A Drift setup does not disappear when moving to Crisp, but it does change shape.

The same goals remain: engage visitors, qualify leads, and direct conversations to the right place. What changes is the structure behind those actions.

The five elements below are the clearest way to understand that shift.

1. Conversations (vs Drift Chat)

Drift is centered around website conversations designed to engage visitors and move them further down the funnel.

In Crisp, the same conversation entry point exists, but it lives inside a broader inbox environment where sales, support, and follow-up can continue in the same place.

This means a lead conversation does not stay isolated from the rest of the customer journey.

2. Routing and handoff (vs ownership logic)

In Drift, a key part of the experience is deciding who should receive the conversation once a visitor is qualified.

In Crisp, that logic appears directly inside the conversation through routing and assignment. Conversations can be routed to the right operator, team, or inbox depending on how your workspace is configured.

This gives you a clear way to manage handoff once a visitor needs human follow-up.

How does Routing / Assign work?

3. Workflows / AI Agent (vs Playbooks and AI flows)

Drift is strongly associated with playbooks, qualification bots, and automated chat flows.

In Crisp, this logic is handled through workflows and the AI Agent. Instead of building separate layers around the chat experience, automation lives directly inside the same conversation system.

This is where qualification, routing, and escalation rules can be configured.

Navigating the Hugo interface and features

How to start Workflows situationally with Hugo AI routing

How to integrate Hugo in your Workflows

4. Lead and visitor context (vs lead data in Drift)

Drift is often used to identify visitors, enrich lead profiles, and qualify people based on form answers or behavioral signals.

In Crisp, this context is available directly in the conversation sidebar through contacts, user data, segments, and other visitor details.

This makes it easier to understand who the person is, what is known about them, and what should happen next.

What is a segment and how can it help your team?

How can I automatically set custom data?

5. Inboxes (vs the broader handoff environment)

Once a conversation has been engaged, qualified, or escalated, it still needs to live somewhere your team can work from clearly.

In Crisp, that structure is handled through inboxes and sub-inboxes. This lets you separate conversations by team, use case, or workflow without breaking the continuity of the exchange.

It creates a clearer environment for managing qualification, follow-up, and handoff inside one shared system.

How can I create sub-inboxes in my Crisp Workspace?

How AI works inside Crisp

If you're coming from Drift, you're already familiar with the idea of an AI agent handling conversations at the beginning of the journey.

In Crisp, Hugo plays that role inside the same conversation system used by your team.

AI acts from the first visitor message

Like Drift’s AI chat agent, Hugo can step in as soon as a visitor starts a conversation.

It can analyze the request, use the available context, and decide how the conversation should continue depending on how your workspace is configured.

Getting started with Hugo AI Agent

AI can handle conversations before handoff

In many Crisp setups, incoming conversations are first processed inside the Automated inbox.

This is where Hugo can qualify, answer, or route requests before they are passed to a team member.

If human follow-up is needed, the conversation is then sent to the appropriate inbox.

How Hugo handles conversations automatically?

AI stays connected to the same inbox environment

In Drift, AI, qualification, and routing are primarily part of the website engagement layer.

In Crisp, once Hugo escalates a conversation, the exchange stays inside the same inbox environment.

Operators can review what happened, access the context, and continue the conversation from there.

Migration: step by step

Once you understand how Crisp works, the next step is simple: migrating your existing setup.

The goal is not to rebuild everything from scratch, but to move your data and recreate your lead engagement flow progressively.

Here is the recommended order to ensure a smooth transition.

Step 1: Import your contacts

Start by importing your leads and contacts so your team keeps access to the people and data already stored in Drift.

You can do this in two ways:

Option A — CSV import (recommended)

1. Export your contacts from Drift as a .csv file
2. Go to Contacts → Import in Crisp
3. Upload your file and map the fields
4. Validate the import

This is the fastest way to get started.

How to import my user data?

Option B — REST API (advanced)

If you want to sync or enrich data continuously, you can use the Crisp REST API.

Typical use cases:

• sync leads from your database
• update user properties in real time
• push events or qualification data
• enrich contacts automatically after a conversation starts

How to use the Crisp REST API

Step 2: Reconnect visitor identity

If your Drift setup relied on identifying visitors across sessions, you can reproduce that behavior in Crisp.

This is especially useful when you want to reconnect anonymous visitors with known contacts after login or after form submission.

How to restore chat sessions with a token?

Step 3: Rebuild your playbooks as workflows

If you were using Drift playbooks to qualify visitors, route conversations, or trigger specific actions, the next step is to rebuild those flows inside Crisp.

This is typically done through:

• workflows
• the AI Agent
• routing and assignment rules

The objective here is to recreate the logic behind your qualification and handoff process, not to copy every Drift flow exactly as it was.

Navigating the Hugo interface and features

How to integrate Hugo in your Workflows

Step 4: Set up qualification and routing

Once your flows are rebuilt, configure how qualified conversations should move through your workspace.

Start with:

• defining your routing logic
• assigning conversations to the right inbox or operator
• setting the user data you want to capture
• deciding when Hugo should escalate

This is where your new qualification and handoff model takes shape.

How does Routing / Assign work?

How can I automatically set custom data?

Step 5: Recreate your follow-up sequences

If you used Drift playbooks or outbound messaging to nurture leads after the first interaction, the Crisp equivalent is usually handled through **Campaigns.**

This allows you to send targeted follow-up messages based on user behavior, contact data, or events.

How to use automated campaigns

Step 6: Import your knowledge base if needed

If your setup relies on help content or documentation, you can also import your knowledge base into Crisp.

1. Go to Knowledge Base settings
2. Select Import from another provider
3. Enter your existing Help Center URL
4. Review and validate the import

How to import your Knowledge Base

Step 7: Decide how to handle old conversations

Historical conversations are often the hardest part of a Drift migration.

If exporting them is not part of your current setup, a practical option is to keep Drift active during the transition while new conversations start flowing into Crisp.

This gives your team time to move their activity progressively without losing access to previous exchanges.

Recommendation

You don’t need to migrate everything at once.

Most teams start with:

• contacts
• AI setup
• campaigns

Then they refine the rest over time.

This approach allows you to move faster without interrupting your lead generation workflow.

Ready to make the switch?

Switching from Drift to Crisp does not mean giving up your ability to engage visitors, qualify leads, and move conversations forward.

Those same goals remain, but inside a system that connects conversations, routing, customer data, campaigns, and AI more directly.

Instead of managing visitor engagement as a separate layer, Crisp brings it into a broader conversation platform where sales, support, and follow-up can work together in the same flow.

If you’re considering the switch, the best way to understand the difference is to try it with your own setup.

→ Compare Crisp vs Drift

Our team is here to guide you. Don’t hesitate to reach out directly from your workspace or through our website.

Updated on: 29/03/2026